Day 7 - 9/1/10

A day of adventuring... complete success!! Our bus was definitely late (by an hour) which I hear is common since everything in this country runs on "Belizean time". Francis sort of forgot that we were supposed to get a bus until I called him again; good thing we just roll with the punches down here. Once we were on the road, we had a blast heading out about 15 minutes to Lubaantuun where we explored a few Mayan ruins, and a few of us got "lost" in the jungle! (NOTE: Mom, if you are reading this, don't worry!! We are fine.. we really didn't get "lost" but 3 of us decided to explore a trail off the creek and it was completely worth it... absolutely beautiful!) Afterwards, we headed out to Blue Creek on a search to find food. The restuarant we wanted to go to was not cooking today because their cook had a bad sprained/fractured ankle... BUT! One of our patients yesterday, Wendy the "ex-patriot", was outside and offered to cook us a random (not so delicious) meal of a hot dog, mac & cheese, rice and beans. Interesting to say the least.. it's amazing what hot sauce can transform! We headed up to explore a cave at Blue Creek and it was definitely one of the most impressive things we have done yet. After an unsuccessful attempt to find a tour guide into the cave, our lovely van driver (Dernell) walked us up there and we went exploring on the rocks to find the cave. (NOTE: Mom, if you are reading this, don't worry! :) We didn't go very far in.. we had a few head lights... and again, it was completely worth it!) Final destination of the day... Rio Blanco... might I add that to get to this destination we spent an hour on a VERY rough road but very worth it (phrase of the day)! A swing bridge across the river, a hike through the jungle and the best part, a running cliff dive into a waterfall!

Honestly, pictures do not do this place justice but I included them just so you could have a smidgen of a taste.
Did I mention I love adventures?

<3.

Pictures:
1. Jungle hike (aka getting lost because we wanted to explore) at Lubaantuun.
2. The trail in the jungle.
3. A picture that desperately tries to show you the rocks we had to climb next to a beautiful creek and waterfall to get to the cave we swam into in very little light.
4. Swing bridge at Rio Blanco. You don't know how bad I wanted to jump and make this swing... look mom, no hands!
5. Cliff jumping... :)